Tag: History

‘The King Lear in I Am the Walrus? That came from John Cage’: Paul McCartney on the Beatles’ debt to great avant-garde composers

Elizabeth Alker It is a sunny October afternoon and I am sitting in a long wood-panelled hallway in an old converted townhouse in London waiting to be called into the office of Paul McCartney. I am dressed in my best clothes and trying not to let nerves get the better of me. I am here to… Read More ‘The King Lear in I Am the Walrus? That came from John Cage’: Paul McCartney on the Beatles’ debt to great avant-garde composers

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Another Country

Mukul Kesavan Freedom should have come in fifty-seven,a century after eighteen-fifty-seventwo centuries after Plassey’s fifty-seven,(which made our history rhyme with five and seven).But freedom came before its time,four and seven didn’t rhyme,the witching hour’s midnight chime,rang in twins before their time,conjoined twins before their time,in nineteen-forty-seven. Radcliffe carved the join and there was blood,that was… Read More Another Country

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A tribute to Rajmohan Gandhi, the writer with deep insights into India’s past

Rajmohan Gandhi, who just turned 90, edited a brave magazine during the Emergency and fought an election against Rajiv Gandhi Ramachandra Guha Mahatma Gandhi had four sons. He bullied the two oldest children, Harilal and Manilal, and condescended to the third, who was named Ramdas. But by the time his youngest son, Devadas, was born,… Read More A tribute to Rajmohan Gandhi, the writer with deep insights into India’s past

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The Satanic Nature of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

NB: Today is the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The USA and Israel are celebrating it with the continuing genocide of the Palestinian people. DS “The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid ‘dens of crime’ that Dickens loved to paint… But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried,… Read More The Satanic Nature of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

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Karl Marx: Letter to Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America; 1865

First posted September 09, 2018 The workingmen of Europe feel sure that, as the American War of Independence initiated a new era of ascendancy for the middle class, so the American Antislavery War will do for the working classes. They consider it an earnest of the epoch to come that it fell to the lot… Read More Karl Marx: Letter to Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America; 1865

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The Cultural Revolution in Tibet: A Photographic Record By LUO SILING

First posted October 05, 2016 In 1999, the Tibetan writer Tsering Woeser came across Wang Lixiong’s book “Sky Burial: The Fate of Tibet.” On finishing it, she sent Mr. Wang photographs taken by her father, who was with the People’s Liberation Army when it entered Tibet in the 1950s and documented the early years of the Cultural… Read More The Cultural Revolution in Tibet: A Photographic Record By LUO SILING

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Roots of The Republic

Plato and the Tyrant: The Fall of Greece’s Greatest Dynasty and the Making of a Philosophical Masterpiece James Romm For my money, there is no more captivating view in all Italy than the vast panorama of the harbour of Syracuse, framed by its majestic, honey-coloured Baroque buildings. The city’s origins go back to the eighth… Read More Roots of The Republic

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U.S. leaders knew we didn’t have to drop atomic bombs on Japan to win the war. We did it anyway (2020)

NB: As the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki approaches (August 6 and 9, 1945); readers might like to read this article by two accomplished scholars of twentieth century history. DS ‘the overwhelming historical evidence from American and Japanese archives indicates that Japan would have surrendered that August, even if atomic… Read More U.S. leaders knew we didn’t have to drop atomic bombs on Japan to win the war. We did it anyway (2020)

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